


Survivors 66

by Lord_of_Void



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Clone Trooper Culture (Star Wars), Dark, Gen, Padawans (Star Wars), Post-Order 66 (Star Wars), Sith Fluff, Sort Of, Space Ships, This will be a wild ride, will add tags as I think of some
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:49:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28921620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_of_Void/pseuds/Lord_of_Void
Summary: She ran, like the tears on her cheeks.Dodge, parry, jump aside. Run.Those who were supposed to be her allies, friends turned against her.But why?
Relationships: Ahsoka Tano & Original Character(s), Ezra Bridger & Original Character(s), Original Characters & Original Characters
Kudos: 2





	Survivors 66

**Author's Note:**

> I had an idea. And that idea involves way too many random padawans.  
> Have fun.

Survivors 66 

Valarin looked around a busy street while hiding in a shadowy doorway. Her eyes swiftly moved from one person to another, as if searching for someone. And there he was. A Twi’lek of an average height, with a blue skin and characteristic purple coat. 

Valarin left her spot and elegantly made way through the crowd to the Twi’lek’s side. She could feel his eyes scanning her, trying to find something determining her background, where she had come from; was she dangerous, after his money or perhaps searching for a job? 

She went by his side until they reached his ship. His two crewmates (Bith and another Human, as Valarin noted) were already there loading supplies. They stopped when they spotted the Twi’lek’s companion. 

“Hey, Mathu, who’s she?” the human called. As Valarin examined him more closely she noticed dark brown hair reaching his ears, well-worn, but clean clothes and a blaster strapped to his right thigh. Her eyes diverted to the Bith and spotted also a blaster. It wasn’t surprising. 

“I have no idea,” Mathu – the blue Twi’lek replied with a shrug and looked at Valarin once again. She didn’t look like a whore. 

“My name’s Rin with I. I want to join your crew,” Valarin explained. She purposely gave them only part of her name; had they know whole of it, they would give her over to The Empire. 

“And why didn’t you ask sooner?” Mathu exclaimed jovially. “I don’t know, where do you have that information from, but I’m really looking for a help. What can you do?” 

Both of Mathu’s crewmates were watching her with increasing interest and she didn’t blame them; she just showed up, probably when they weren’t expecting her and her previous life left in her persisting sense of calm confidence. It tended to unnerve other people. 

“I can fly, fight, repair tech, sneak around, cook, take care of wounds, be really convincing and play Sabaac. Is anything else required?” 

“Can you sing?” the Bith inquired. 

Valarin’s eyebrows shot upwards. Why would she need that? But, well, she was once forced to sing in front of a Hutt when she had been caught sneaking into his palace and since she’s still alive and she hadn’t had to kill many people on her way out she apparently could sing, right? 

“I suppose so,” she answered the Bith. Mathu groaned. 

“Oh, come on, we don’t ask that question anymore-” he turned to Valarin, “-you’re in. Welcome to the crew of Kag’za.” 

Mathu broadly gestured to a Nebula class freighter with blue ornaments and placed his right arm around her shoulders. She tensed; no one touched her like this since... Well, there had been that Weequay in the cantina on Cato Neimodia, who tried to “get familiar” with her, but she scared him off. 

However, this time she didn’t want scare Mathu or any other crewmember away, she needed them to get further to The Outer Rim. Somewhere as far as possible from The Core and The Empire. And Kad’za and her crew would help her, even if she had to abandon them later. 

Mathu walked her through the ship, showed her own cabin (luck, indeed), small cargo bay currently filled with both their supplies and some mysterious crates they were delivering and a cockpit with exactly four chairs. It was small ship, but it was enough for four people. 

Other two crewmates Jerten (the Human) and Rathes (the Bith) turned out to be a counterweight to Mathu’s stoic nature with their endless bickering and joking and as annoying as it might seemed, Valarin couldn’t help but feel like the world wasn’t so damned. 

A change of environment. That would do her good. 

\----- 

The job of smuggler, or “freelance goods distributor” as Mathu called it, was surprisingly uneventful. Or maybe that was a result of Valarin’s previous life which was everything, but boring. Sure, they had already got into a fight with pirates. And somewhere along the line Valarin realized she actually liked that simple life, where only thing she had to care about were three crewmates and cargo; it helped her forget. 

They were on formerly separatist planet Saleucami when something catched Valarin’s attention. Just a faint feeling of familiarity as if she had been on the planet before. But she wasn’t! That could mean... No, that was impossible. But she was alive, why couldn’t anyone else survive? 

She turned to Mathu and Rathes talking with a Rhodian about their shipment; would they accept another crewmember, if she found another survivor? 

She watched as Mathu and the Rhodian shook their hands. They broke a deal to ship only Force knows what to some backwater planet. Tatooine, was is called? It didn’t matter, there were more important things. 

The Twi’lek noticed Valarin’s gaze. “What is it?” 

“Do you think, Kad’za could have another crewmember?” Valarin asked slowly. But what was there to be afraid of? It wasn’t like Mathu would be angry at her; disappointed, perhaps irritated, but not angry. 

“Who do you have in mind? Do we know them?” he inquired? 

“And can they sing?” Rathes added. 

“I’m not sure about their singing abilities, but I know them,” Valarin replied trying as sure as possible. She wasn’t sure if they ever met but she was absolutely certain they were another survivor, probably younger than her as she could be sure of their presence. 

“They’ll be in your cabin, understood?” Mathu said firmly and gestured to the rest of the city “Now, go find them.” 

Valarin snapped a mock salute and ran off from the landing pad to the busy city streets. She had to stop from time to time, whether it was to avoid Clone patrols or to find her way. Eventually she found herself in front of an entrance to a small bar. She shouldn’t be surprised, getting a drink had been a first thing she had done after she had stopped running and had got herself new little less obvious clothes. 

Inhale, exhale. She entered the bar. 

\----- 

It was full of people of various races (mostly Twi’leks and Humans including clones) and somewhat smelly. She looked around. And there he was. Another human with dark short hair, tan skin and a drink in front of him. He looked like he could be fifteen or something around that age, but definitely too young for alcohol. 

Valarin moved through the people instinctively avoiding gazes of clones to the small table in a far corner. The boy lifted his head and looked at Valarin. 

“Unless you’re here to buy me another drink or perhaps to tell me that my life is not a complete nightmare, I would recommend you to get lost,” he snapped at Valarin. She ignored his animosity and sat down on a spare chair. 

“I can buy you a drink,” Valarin admitted, “but I’m unfortunately unable to tell you your life is not a nightmare, because I would be lying. On the other hand, I can tell you that my life turned out to be a similar nightmare as yours due to exact same reasons and offer you a place in the crew of a small freighter.” 

“How could you even know what happened to me?” he asked. 

Valarin looked around and whispered: “Clones did, they shot your protector whoever they were and tried to kill you, too. Out of blue, without any warning.” 

He stared at Valarin with wide eyes as if she just told him blasters were made of jelly. 

“How-” he begun but Valarin raised her and to stop him. 

“Not here, not now. I’m willing to tell you more on the ship. So, are you in?” 

He pondered for a moment on her offer. Even if he went away later, he could practically get free passage from Saleucami and some terrible memories. He nodded with a smile. 

\----- 

The crew of Kad’za stood around him, examining him. It was... unnerving, to say the least. 

“How was your name, again?” Jerten asked. “Rin blurted it out too quickly for me to catch it.” 

“Verdika,” Verdika replied with accent on di. 

“You’re in,” Mathu stated and reached out with his hand. Verdika took it. Valarin could more feel than see him tense at Mathu’s firm grip. Clones had firm grip. 

\----- 

Valarin was lying on her bunk. Her breaths were slow and shallow as if she was sleeping, but in fact, she wasn’t. The closest thing she could compare it to was meditation, as she tried to empty her mind, not to think of anything. And that was why she could hear a faint whisper of her new name so clearly. Verdika was apparently awake, too. 

“Rin,” he whispered again. 

“Yes?” she replied whispering as well. 

“Can I...” he didn’t finish, but he didn’t even have to. 

“Come here,” Rin whispered and sat up. She shuffled to the side, so Verdika could comfortably sit next to her and to her surprise when he jumped from the top bunk, he cuddled to her, as if seeking comfort, she wasn’t sure she could give him. Before, she never did such a thing; yes, she knew how to display affection and also did so, but cuddling... that was something so personal to her and weird and there was the funny feeling in her chest. She instinctively held Verdika tight, not sure if she wasn’t hurting him, but at the moment she felt as if she was responsible for him; for his protection and wellbeing, that he doesn’t get hurt again and that she somehow had to be at the place of the one he lost or at least be some steady figure in his life he could rely on. 

They stayed silent, for no words were needed. Their mutual understanding shared with soothing warmness of their bodies. And first time in months they weren’t alone. 

\----- 

Rin opened her eyes. Something had happened. 

A knock on the door. It had to be another; the first one probably woke her. 

There was a weight in her side, pining her to the wall. Verdika. He stirred in her grasp, still asleep and so, so peaceful. But they had to get up. 

“Come in,” she called to the door. Verdika stirred again and murmured something. 

The door slid open and revealed Jerten standing outside, still in his sleeping clothes and studying the scene in front of him. 

“We’re coming out of hyperspace,” he said and yawned, “meeting in the cockpit in five minutes.” 

Then he closed the door again. Fine, it was really time to get up. 

\----- 

The crew of Kad’za gathered in a small cockpit; Mathu in the chair of pilot and Rathes as his copilot. Jerten had changed from his pajamas. The weird blue if hyperspace turned into silvery lines and then stars. From the viewport they could see a yellow-green planet. Rin suppressed an urge to snicker; she would always recognize Florrum, that blasted planet of Hondo Ohnaka’s pirates. Especially after that fiasco with ransoming Count Dooku. 

“Why are we here?” Verdika asked. He too obviously wasn’t very happy with it. 

“As unhappy as I am, we had to struck a deal with Hondo Ohnaka. We team up, liberate some stuff and then share the profit,” Mathu told his crew as he steered Kad’za to the surface. 

“Nothing else you could share with us?” Jerten questioned. 

“It’s-” Mathu sighed, “it’s in already abandoned imperial outpost. Or that was Hondo told me.” 

“That will be fun,” Rathes exclaimed cheerfully. 

“Sure, it will,” Rin growled. More like it would be another debacle like the Dooku one. And how could he even find abandoned outpost? Yes, there might be some on far reaches of The Outer Rim, but all of those were too far away. She could bet, that thing was still garrisoned and Hondo had told otherwise to agree to the deal. 

And it turned out she was right. Almost. And that made it even worse. Hondo had not planned to get into an abandoned outpost, but a Venator Star destroyer, out of all things. Heck, separatist ships were easier to infiltrate, they should have tried to find one, if they wanted an adventure! But definitely NOT this suicide attempt. She kept silent for another while, but none of the others (except Verdika, who was glaring at her, because he, obviously, had the same opinion) seemed to stop discussing that madness. 

“You know,” Rin said, when she finally decided it was enough, “if that ship has even half of its normal garrison, we could be pretty screwed and how I see you talking about that precious cargo, it seems to me, it will be protected, probably with more ships; Arquitens light cruisers if we’re lucky, another Venators if we’re not.” 

She paused for a moment and looked around. All present pirates and her crew gave her their attention. Verdika was smiling. 

“I want to know, what exactly we’re trying to get and if it’s really worth risking our lives, or it’s something absolutely worthless and you only want to do it, so you can say you broke into a fucking Venator!” 

Silence. If anyone wanted to say anything, they quickly changed their mind under Rin’s fierce gaze. 

“Cyber crystals,” Hondo finally said. Both Verdika and Rin turned to him. 

“How many!” Verdika exclaimed. “I’m not in if it’s less than five. It wouldn’t be worth it.” 

“My... my contact said large shipment, only one Venator to keep cover and from Coruscant to Arkanis,” Hondo explained. Rin noticed how Verdika flinched at that, she couldn’t help herself when she tensed up; they both knew where those crystals were from. And it probably was a large shipment, since there were quite a lot Jedi on Coruscant during the triple damned order. 

“Who’s your contact?” Rin snapped at Hondo. The whole thing began to look promising, after all, even if it still was a suicide attempt on its own, it could be a trap and that would definitely made it worse. 

Hondo reached to his pocket, fished out a small holoprojector and displayed an image of hooded Togruta. Something was weirdly familiar on her even with the hood on and when the pirate explained she called herself Fulcrum, Rin knew. The information was real. 

“So?” Mathu asked Rin. “Do you trust Hondo now?” 

Rin nodded absently. If Fulcrum was alive, there sure had to be more survivors, she just had to find them. 

Mathu and Hondo began explaining their plan on infiltrating said Venator. Rin had to restrain herself from facepalming. Those two apparently had no real knowledge of those ships; armament, standard crew, ports, weak points... 

“Do you think we should try to stop them?” Verdika whispered next to her. 

“Maybe. But I want to get those crystals and then-” she sighed, “-then destroy them, so no criminal or imperial can get their hands on them. Fuck the profit, this is just... They might be dead, but I don’t want The Empire to dishonor their legacy with some atrocity of theirs.” 

“So, we’ll stop them and try to come up with a better plan?” 

“You know, guys,” Rin said rather loudly, “with this plan we all end up dead just after reaching the main hangar.” 

“What you don’t like now?” Hondo barked at her. 

“If we approach them in one of our ship, they’ll shoot us to smithereens before we even try to get close. Those turrets on the surface have more destructive power than ten of your ships, Hondo. And even if we somehow managed to get close, they’ll be expecting us on every single port and then shoot us into smithereens. That means going in one group is more useless than a dismantled droid.” 

“And thus, we need to make at least two groups,” Verdika interjected. “A big one acting as a diversion. They need to be aggressive enough to attract the crew’s attention. Then another group that will sneak inside, grab the cargo and is out before anyone notices.” 

“From what I saw from above, we have at least three middle-sized ship ready to lead a somewhat convincing assault. Two could go for the main hangar and the bridge, the third one for one of the airlocks on the side.” 

“And the second group, preferably one small ship, would sneak around. They could dock to the backside of the bridge tower.” 

“This is an audacious plan,” Jerten commented thoughtfully. 

“But anything less will fail,” Verdika noted. 

“One condition,” Hondo said, “since it’s your plan, you will be the one to be in the small suicide group.” 

“Actually, that was the idea,” Rin proclaimed. Verdika next to her donned a smug smile. 

\----- 

Kad’za twirled elegantly as it was trying to avoid barrage of laser bolts both from a Venator class Star destroyer and two starfighters. Sharp turn to the left, the hull of the small freighter almost scratched the back of the bridge tower. Another twirl and something fell off of the ship; yet no one noticed as the freighter kept firing on the starfighters. 

A small ship, or more like a big interceptor attached itself to the back of the Venator. 

Two people inside the ship stood by the airlock, waiting; both of them had closed eyes. 

“Now, it’s clear,” one of them – a human female said as her eyes snapped open. They both reached to their hidden pockets sewed into their baggy clothes and pulled out similar metallic cylinders. 

“May the Force be with us,” the other human preached as they both ignited glowing blades; one yellow, the other one blue. Then they opened the airlock and thrusted their blades into the Venator’s surface. It didn’t take them long to cut a hole big enough for them to crawl inside. 

Rin got inside first, looking around for possible threats and was closely followed by Verdika. 

“We should get that back,” she stated and pointed at the wall cutout. Verdika nodded. It made a sense; while it still would be noticeable it would be easier to overlook. 

Rin reached out with her hand and the slab of metal lifted itself into the air and levitated back to the hole and slid inside. Now, they had to find their bounty. 

Rin looked at Verdika, lifted her left eyebrows. He grinned at her in response from bellow of a hood of his resewn cloak that now resembled more a brown cardigan than some traditional clothing of now almost dead religion and pointed to the corridor leading surprisingly to the turbolifts to the bridge. 

As strange and mad it seemed on the first sight it actually made a sense, as Rin thought about it, to have their precious cargo under the surveillance of a bridge crew. And that would attract way too much attention to troopers. 

Maybe there was a solution to many of their problems, but that was for later. Now, crystals! 

They hid their lightsabers again, otherwise the clones would shoot to kill for sure. With blasters they had chance to end up stunned. They began to run, gaining speed, appearing only as two black and brown blurs, coming to halt in front of turbolifts – the only way to the bridge outside of making a hole from the outside. 

Both Verdika and Rin looked to one of the corridors. There was a patrol coming close to them. Just few clones but even that would be a problem as they would alert others. But Force was with Verdika and Rin; the door to turbolift opened and they quickly got inside. Just as the small squadron turned the corner, the door closed again and the made a quick ride up. Right to the bridge. 

\----- 

A soft ping sounded on the bridge and a door of a turbolift opened. Nothing suspicious, right? And that’s were all supposed innocence ended. 

Two cloaked figures stormed into the bridge, blasters at the ready. The few armored clones that were there soon fell to their shots and those officers who reached for their weapons got a shot to their hands. Yes, they could just stun them, but only a Jedi would not shoot to kill in such situation, right? 

“Hands up, face the view port!” Rin snapped at the officers. When they hesitated, she shot one of them. Fear appeared in faces of others as the corpse of their fallen comrade dropped to the ground. Slowly they turned away from the intruders. 

“Pit crew, climb up,” Verdika ordered as he spotted a comm officer trying to send a distress signal. The comm officer tried to quickly type something and then fell across the console as Rin blew his head off. At the same time Verdika fired at the gun officer; they sunk down, deep into the pit. 

“Keep an eye on them,” Rin told Vedika nodding to the officers. Then she looked around the room. And there it was! A small crate, chest really stood in a corner and was partially hidden by a clone’s corpse. 

She pushed the corpse aside and opened it to find out how many crystals were there when she heard it. A song. Silent whispered song in a back of her mind, as if one of the crystals was calling to her. But it was different, than it had been long time ago on Illum; more like it knew she would in time deliver it to its rightful owner. She dove her hand inside, fumbling blindly for the right one. Suddenly a crystal warmer than the others slipped into her palm. 

A smirk appeared on her lips. It was time to go. 

She fished a charge out of her pocket and attached it to the chest. It was time to go. 

When she reached for her blaster she hesitated. Those people would die, if they left them stunned here. And if they woke up, they could stop they could foil their plan. 

She set her jaw and stood up. Verdika looked at her and nodded. He understood. 

\----- 

They ran through the ship, lightsaber lit, killing their way to the hangar. That one would be tough. Arriving pilots and other soldiers would be a quite an obstacle, especially since Verdika was going to comm their attack group, the bridge crew blew the crystals up and they aren’t going to make it out. 

Another group of clones. They were expecting them; blaster already raised, one had a heavy rotary gun, but when Jedi were expecting attacking clones, they weren’t much of a problem. Yet those soldiers were problem enough to land a shot on Rin; just a graze, but on her leg so every step hurt. 

Every time she put her weight on her left foot, she clenched her jaw with pain. 

Her mind flew to the bridge, to the scattered bodies of officers; every single one of them shot. 

A blaster bolt missed her head by just millimeters. She turned; a twirl of her lightsaber and a thud as clone’s headless body dropped down. 

And there was another group nearing them. Rin reached deep into her, her heart and with a loud battle cry thrusted her hands forward. Clones flew backwards, crushed into a wall and fell. She felt life leaving them. 

“Come on, hurry!” Verdika called her. Yes, she should run to the hangar. Yes, run! 

“Comm Mathu, we won’t make it,” she said as she caught up with Verdika. A trigger suddenly felt way too heavy in her pocket. If she blew the crystals now, would they still make it, or wouldn’t the message to Mathu be lie as was planned? 

A blast door in front of them opened. They reached the hangar. Her eyes found Verdika’s; he nodded. 

She pushed the button. 

The whole ship shuddered with the explosion. They had about twenty seconds before they died. Verdika pointed subtly at ARC-170 Starfighter; they possible way out, as it had a hyperdrive and only about fifty clones stood in their way. Easy. 

“I found a way out. Any ideas?” Verdika asked Rin. 

She frowned. Then closed her eyes and reached into her heart again. 

Clones around took aim. Clones whose brother betrayed and killed Jedi around the whole galaxy, who shot her master right from the sky and tried to kill her. 

Cold ran down her spine, she could feel tear running down her face. 

The fired. Almost. One moment they stood on the hangar deck, the second they rose to the air clutching on their throats, the third they flew across the hangar. 

Someone touched Rin’s hand. Someone familiar. Verdika. Run! She let him drag her to the Starfighter. 

\----- 

The Force was with them. Just before the blast from the crystals reached them, Verdika made the jump to the hyperspace. 

Rin slumped in the seat of front gunner. The blue familiar scenery of hyperspace calming her raging mind and heart. 

“Are you alright?” Verdika’s voice sounded through a comm. 

“No. I’m not,” Rin replied. There was no point in lying; Verdika could feel her in the Force. 

Silence. 

Rin recalled the... the incident in the hangar. What did she do? And how? She felt so much; all the grief, anger burst out of her as water from breached dam. Was that how the dark side felt? She never felt anything like that and it scared. 

“Aaron P’ræsm,” Verdika said, startling Rin from her thoughts. 

“What?” 

“Aaron P’ræsm. That’s my real name. Clones used to call me Verdika,” he explained. 

“Why are you telling me this? I don’t need to know it,” Rin said back. 

“You’re right,” Verdika, no Aaron, agreed. Rin was sure, he was smiling. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t know and I want you to.” 

Rin sighed, squeezed her eyes shut, fighting off tears. 

“Valarin Etheras,” she whispered to the hyperspace. She didn’t shut her comm down. 

“Nice to meet you, Valarin.” 

“Same, Aaron.” 

They weren’t alone and after such a long time it was a relief.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want, you can find me on my [Tumbrl](https://lord-of-void.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
